On the stump this week for Republican candidates, NJ's Gov. Chris Christie said GOP governors need to win this year, so they can be in control of the "voting mechanisms" during what he believes might be his own run for President in 2016. He cited three races in particular, in three states that would be crucial to him as the GOP nominee, as reported by New Jersey's The Record...

Governor Christie pushed further into the contentious debate over voting rights than ever before, saying Tuesday that Republicans need to win gubernatorial races this year so that they're the ones controlling "voting mechanisms" going into the next presidential election.

Republican governors are facing intense fights in the courts over laws they pushed that require specific identification in order to vote and that reduce early voting opportunities. Critics say those laws sharply curtail the numbers of poor and minority voters, who would likely vote for Democrats. Christie - who vetoed a bill to extend early voting in New Jersey - is campaigning for many of those governors now as he considers a run for president in 2016.

Christie stressed the need to keep Republicans in charge of states - and overseeing state-level voting regulations - ahead of the next presidential election.
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"Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist? Would you rather have Scott Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather have Mary Burke? Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed FitzGerald?" he asked.

Great questions, Governor Christie! Let's take a crack at offering some answers for ya...

"Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist?"

Oh, and Rick Scott was also in control of the "voting mechanisms" as Governor of Florida in 2012 when the state Republican Party hired a long-time GOP operative who ran companies with a sordid history of voter registration fraud allegations to run GOP voter registration efforts. That didn't work out well, when hundreds of fraudulent registrations began showing up across the state in the lead-up to the Presidential Election, as collected by the firm's workers and turned in to election officials by the state GOP. A fourth GOP registration worker was arrested in Florida on multiple voter registration felony charges just a few weeks ago as a result of state law-enforcement's two-year criminal investigation into the matter.

Scott's challenger for Florida Governor this year is Charlie Crist, who is now a Democrat, but used to be the Republican Governor of Florida. As Florida Governor, Charlie Crist restored the voting franchise to non-violent felons who had served their time, but then Scott rolled back those reforms, resulting in more than 1.5 million former felons who have been robbed of their right to vote in the Sunshine State. While Governor Crist also got rid of the 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting machines that had plagued the state of Florida for years. After leaving the Republican Party, Crist said it was "crystal clear" that GOP claims that Photo ID voting restrictions are needed to stop "voter fraud" is "bunk".

Advantage: Crist!

"Would you rather have Scott Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather have Mary Burke?"

Moving on to Wisconsin. Republican Governor Scott Walker has spent years championing and lying about the GOP Photo ID voting law in that state, the one which was found in violation of the state constitution by several different state judges, and also in violation of the U.S. Constitution by a federal judge after a full trial on the merits. Despite the attempt to enact the law which would have, among other things, barred the use of Veterans IDs for voting purposes, the U.S. District Court judge who presided over the trial determined that it could disenfranchise as many as 300,000 legally registered voters, despite the fact that "defendants could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past." The judge added that it was "absolutely clear" that Walker's Photo ID restrictions would "prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes."

On that basis alone, advantage to Walker's opponent Mary Burke!

"Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed FitzGerald?"

Finally, when it comes to the "voting mechanisms" in Ohio, the choice seems very clear as well Republican Governor John Kasich signed into law new restrictions on early voting that rolled back very successful reforms instituted after the state's disastrous 2004 election, which featured 6 to 8 hour lines, and the last vote cast in the state around 2am on Wednesday morning. Despite the success of those reforms, Kasich's first attempted roll back of early voting on the Sunday before elections for all but active duty military in 2012 was nixed by the U.S. District Court and upheld by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

After the election, Kasich signed a law which rolled back a full week of early voting, including the one week in which voters could both register and vote at the same time, and further approved the end of some evening and Sunday voting hours, which are regarded as "Souls to the Polls" day for African-American churches who get out the vote on the final Sunday before Election Day. Both a U.S. District Court and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeal once again ordered those restriction on voting restored, but the ruling was later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court on the basis that it was too soon before voting was to begin to make the changes.

But perhaps Christie wasn't posing those question to us, since we actually give a damn about voting rights, no matter whose are being violated by ambitious politicians who prefer to cheat and control the "voting mechanisms" to "win", rather than respect the voting rights of all voters.

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There are many genuine conservatives who don't believe that conservatism entails corporate welfare and gutting democracy. Mainstream corporate media compliance with controlling "voting mechanisms" (eg the bogus attacks on ACORN) reveals which side it is on.

Only somewhat devil's advocating here, John, but --- presuming the report you cite is accurate, that the problem is touch-screen calibration (as is often the case) --- isn't that a hardware problem, rather than a software problem?

In other words, if the software instructions to the computer for where each item is on the screen were incorrect, the flipping problem would occur (in theory) on all of the machines, as you suggest, yet that has not (so far) been reported to be the case.

If it was a hardware issue, however, with the shitty touch-screens themselves not physically working as they are supposed to, then taking the one machine out of service would be the appropriate response (even as I'd be delighted to see every single 100% unverifiable touch-screen system taken out of service forever, but that's a separate issue.)

So, I suppose my question is, what makes you so certain that this is a software, not a hardware problem?

The answers to Christie's questions, of course, are that he'd like see the current crop of scumbag, vote-suppressing GOP governors carry on with their anti-democratic efforts. Because he, like the rest of what passes for the GOP brain trust, realize they can't win on a fair vote; polling consistently shows not only would many so-called red states flip blue if gerrymandering and an vote-suppression tactics weren't in play, but that if voters voted on the issues, rather than party allegiances, the result would be a Democratic landslide. Because when voters have been polled on the issues, not on party choice, they overwhelmingly chose more progressive/Democratic Party positions - even voters who identify as Tea Party.

Without gerrymandering, voter suppression, and outright obfuscation and confusing the electorate about what Republican positions actually are, versus what many in their base think, or have been mislead to think they are, the GOP would be reduced to a rump. And their leaders and consultants know it.

IMHO, I believe Christie's comments are a clue to something equally-if-not-more sinister than the voter suppression tactics which is changing the Electoral College from winner take all to line up with their gerrymandered congressional districts. The GOP is attempting - and so far succeeding - in Democrat-proofing all branches of government (aided by SCOTUS).

Unfortunately, because Ohio Democrats nominated an extremely weak candidate for Governor, it looks like John Kasich is going to roll to a 30 point victory next month, and possibly carry with him the current Sec. of State, and Attorney General, who have helped to try and restrict voting rights in the state. Not only that, but an easy victory by Kasich for Governor sets him up to be a very viable candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Very convenient with the convention being in Cleveland and all. Where's my barf bag?

I took a three mile walk today to vote early. Even though the official voter pamphlet said you could vote on the machine OR paper, I was told I couldn't vote on paper until election day. Funny, because I voted on paper at the same location last time I voted early. It was a hassle because they obviously weren't prepared and had to set up a computer and printer to let me do it. I apologized for the inconvenience. this time it was just, "you can't vote on paper today".

The pamphlet said nothing about only being able to vote on paper on November 4th. You'd think with only two ways to vote, they could offer both services.

Also, Utah has gone totally "voter ID". When I got my last drivers license, I had to take my Social Security Card and my Birth Certificate. I've lived here my entire life and never had to do that before.

Guess we don't want those illegals to be in charge of the "mechanisms". What a democracy!